eclipsed author Michael Lorant has interviewed Alice Cooper nine times over the last three decades. These included telephone calls, but also conversations in which people sat opposite each other. In addition, there are several so-called Meet and Greet meetings on the fringes of concerts. The last time he met the veteran shock rocker was in Essen in April during the "Rock meets Classic" concert series.
eclipsed: To fall right into the house with the door. After the appearance of the original Alice Cooper group in the "Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame" three years ago and the three songs on the "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" album, will there be a future for the band again?
Alice Cooper: The question doesn't arise that way. And not because I never want to do anything with the boys again, or ever will. There is simply no question of touring the world again with the original Alice Cooper Group.
eclipsed: Specifically, what does that mean?
Cooper: Dennis [Dunaway; bassist] and Neal [Smith; drummer] are among my best friends. For example, we recently watched the documentary "Super Duper Alice Cooper" together in the cinema and hardly got out of laughing. And for some years now, there's hardly been a charity gig that's safe from us. It's fun to play with them together, but I don't think after all these decades it's fitting in their lives to tour the world again as Alice Cooper.
eclipsed: Did they say that so clearly or is that just your impression?
Cooper: They are part of my life - as friends and as musicians. But that's all there is to it. Of course there could be more studio work and new songs together besides the occasional gigs. eclipsed: Will it be the Alice Cooper Group first with Michael Bruce? Cooper: You could see it that way. I don't have any problems with Mike. Musically, he was perhaps our most powerful argument.
eclipsed: Or is Glen Buxton still missing?
Cooper: Basically I'm not a person who looks back forever, but the band with Glen, Dennis, Neal and Michael was something unique. I haven't experienced this with other musicians and I won't experience it again.
eclipsed: That refers to the early years before the band was even called Alice Cooper, doesn't it?
Cooper: Yeah. Some of us went to high school together, then to college. We dreamed of a career together, lived together, and sometimes we even starved because no income came in from gigs. And then we managed to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world. It all happened pretty fast. At one moment we were still the most hated band in L.A. and suddenly a number one act in England.
eclipsed: How was the distribution of roles in the original band? Who was responsible for what?
Cooper: The smartest of us was and is Dennis. He is the artist in the band, a great artist with crazy graphic ideas. Everything that was spacy, trippy and freaky on the albums came from Dennis. "Blue Turk, for example, is one of his ideas. Everything commercial came from Michael Bruce and me, "No More Mr. Nice Guy" for example, a typical single. These things come from Mike. While others tend to come from The Who and Yardbirds, Dennis was a total Pink Floyd fan as early as the sixties. I remember exactly how he came to me with "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" and convinced me of this acid rock from England. But his horizon went even further: he loved Stockhausen and all those upcoming electronic bands from Europe. That was so exciting about us: Everyone liked Rock'n'Roll, and Mike and I had a feel for what the teens of that time could love. And on the other hand we had Dennis, who gave everything an artistic touch and animated us to crazy things.
